Dr. van Woerden obtained her PhD from Arizona State University (ASU) with a focus on statistical analysis of college students food insecurity, roommates, and meal plan use in 2019. Dr. van Woerden did her masters in Statistics at ASU and holds a second masters in Statistics as well as a Post-Graduate Diploma from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. Dr. van Woerden's Bachelors was in Statistics and Chemistry from the University of Waikato in New Zealand.

Dr. van Woerden’s main research interests are health behaviors and outcomes, with a focus on social networks, food insecurity, and body size. Dr. van Woerden also examines environmental issues, such as bisphenols, phthalates, and nuclear energy. Dr. van Woerden has experience with a wide variety of analytical methods and datasets and has peer-reviewed publications in many areas, such as a validation study for physical activity measurements obtained using ecological momentary assessment (EMA), the association between emotions and food choices, how objective measures of GPA are associated with food insecurity, how environmental contaminants are associated with demographics and BMI, and why friends tend to have a similar BMI as each other.